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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24095959">Now that the spring is in the air</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudlesslysky/pseuds/cloudlesslysky'>cloudlesslysky</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, M/M, POV Draco Malfoy, Terminal Illnesses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:13:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,746</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24095959</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudlesslysky/pseuds/cloudlesslysky</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A surprise attack in Diagon Alley leaves Draco struggling to make peace with the fact that he won't live long enough to experience his own wedding.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>374</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>HD Wireless 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Now that the spring is in the air</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you so much to Jen (p1013) for helping me get the grammar and spelling up to snuff!</p><p>This was written for "Seasons in the Sun" by Westlife, and the title comes from the song.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It's not that Draco thought no one would ever so much as think of getting revenge against him or his parents. Of course not. He's not an idiot.</p><p>But he <em>did</em> think that they would have done so closer to the war, when the wounds were still fresh. Before Draco made friends with Hermione Granger. Before he mended the relationship between the Malfoys and the Weasleys—what a miracle that had been. Before Draco and Harry mended their bridges and were set to marry come summer.</p><p>He had always imagined that revenge would have come during those first years when he sooner expected Aurors to hex him than help him. He imagined that someone would simply follow behind him, drag him into a back alley and use Diffindo or something to slit his throat or lop his head off. He expected that the Aurors would be extremely unhelpful to his parents and his murder would have gone unsolved forever.</p><p>He hasn't had those thoughts in nearly two years now. He hasn't been on constant alert, expecting an attack at any second for nearly a whole year—comfortable and secure with Harry at his side.</p><p>Perhaps that was foolish of him, thinking that just because the papers are eagerly following the wedding preparations without sneering about him, it means that most of the public has settled too.</p><p>He was just supposed to pick up some napkin samples—he would have thought that Harry would hate every single second of all of this, find it stupid and wasteful, but they've had fun with it. He was just supposed to pop in, grab the samples, and go back home.</p><p>He wasn't expecting the feeling of glass breaking against his head, liquid sliding down his face—more than just blood—to a shout of "That's for my sister, you fucking Death Eater whore!"</p><p>He's so shocked he doesn't react immediately, instead freezing in place as he hears people scream around him—there aren't many out right now, it's early on a Saturday—and trying to catch up to what just happened.</p><p>A strong Scourgify hits him, taking the strongly smelling viscous liquid away. It's followed by a vanishing spell so strong but sloppy that it doesn't just take the glass, it also vanishes some of his hair and part of his robes around the neckline and shoulder.</p><p>"Let's see how willing he'll be to help you pretend to be anything less than a Death Eater when you're no longer spreading your legs for him."</p><p>Draco finally turns his head and just briefly catches sight of a man who would be handsome if not for the horrific grimace on his face. The man disapparates with a crack, leaving Draco standing still in the middle of the street, still bleeding, clothes and hair ruined, and with the sinking feeling that whatever potion the man threw at him, it only needed that first touch to work, and he vanished it to keep Draco from analysing it to find an antidote.</p><p>The Aurors arrive then, and before Draco can really catch up with his own thoughts, he's sitting in a hospital bed, surrounded by friends and family, with a scowling witch casting diagnostic spells on him.</p><p>He feels oddly numb, as if his brain still hasn’t caught up with any of it. Harry’s hand is clutching his own in a grip Draco would normally complain about, but right now it feels grounding, a tangible connection to the world outside his own shock-numb mind.</p><p>When the healer finally gives her diagnosis, voice soft, gentle, and sad, Draco’s ears start ringing and he stops paying attention to anything beyond Harry’s hand in his.</p><p>He’s been poisoned with a wasting disease.</p><p>He only has a few months to live.</p><p>He won’t live long enough to turn 23.</p><p>He’ll die before his and Harry’s wedding day.</p><p>He’s <em>dying</em>.</p><p><br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
</p><p>Draco’s friends and family immediately jump into action.</p><p>His father and Hermione, though they’ve never so much as spent an hour alone together before, throw themselves into research of what kind of potion could have caused such a terrible disease and any possible antidotes. Hermione even goes so far as to contact Headmistress McGonagall to get access to the Hogwarts library to compare and contrast with Malfoy Manor’s possibly even older collection.</p><p>Ron and Harry go Aurors on the whole thing—Harry may not be allowed to work the investigation due to a too close personal connection to it, but he still oversees things and function as someone to help Ron think—and immediately go back to the scene of the attack to see if there was anything they missed the first time.</p><p>Mother becomes a sort of go-between, though more of the management type than the messenger one. She flits in and out between the healers at St. Mungo's, Father and Hermione in whatever library they're currently holed up in, and the Auror Department and DMLE. She also ensures that she spends most of her days with Draco—she neither wants him to be lonely, nor miss any precious little time they have left.</p><p>Aunt Andromeda becomes Draco's carer. She comes to the Manor, bringing Teddy with her, and then watches over the both of them. She manages the house elves with gentle but firm directions, to ensure Draco is as comfortable as he can possibly be, even as his body slowly starts to shut down.</p><p>Draco…</p><p>Draco continues to plan the wedding he won't live long enough to have. They set the date for July 3rd, just between their respective birthdays, and Draco's diagnosis says he won't live past the middle of May. But he continues to plan, continues to rope Harry into making decisions regarding their wedding, and continues to make the traditional scrapbook containing all the details. It's something his family has done for centuries, and though he won't live to see it realised, he still wants this connection to his family line. Still wants to leave this as a legacy, as his ancestors before him. Something he will never pass down to the children he'll never have.</p><p>It's too big for him to think about, too terrifying in its reality, so Draco simply… puts it out of his mind and continues as if nothing is wrong at all. Anything else seems unthinkable. He cannot come to terms with the fact that he'll die before he turns twenty-three, that he'll be another name on the entirely too long list of people Harry Potter has loved and lost.</p><p>The papers have a field day, however. They portray the whole thing as a tragedy <em>for Harry</em>, where Draco's involvement is more incidental than anything else. It’s not so much about the horror of the crime committed against Draco, or the terrible feeling it must be to die before you’re twenty-three like this. Instead, they loudly speculate who will be the one to "comfort" Harry in his "time of need" and make suggestions that go through essentially all of his friends. Perhaps Harry and Ginny Weasley will get back together again, perhaps his best friends, Ron and Hermione, will add him to their marriage, perhaps Ron’s older brother in Romania will come back for Draco’s funeral to be a soothing and strong presence, and soon sparks fly.</p><p>As the papers keep constantly updating the people of wizarding Britain—and possibly beyond—on Draco's ever declining health, Harry starts to receive letters from increasingly fervent fans promising to help him move on. Draco tries to find humour in it, but it's hard to find joy in people revelling in your death and their delusion that it will give them a chance with Harry.</p><p>Harry is even more upset than Draco is, however. He’s taken to burning all of the letters with a swift Incendio without ever opening them, and sends angry letters to the papers whenever a new article drops. If Draco’s father wasn’t so busy trying to find some way to cure him, Draco’s quite certain he’d be threatening to sue the lot of them.</p><p>That or outright buy them and shut them down entirely.</p><p>It’s a nice fantasy to have, Draco thinks, though he knows that his father likely considers saving his life far more important than saving his reputation. Which, considering how important the Malfoy reputation has always been to Father, is very gratifying, and Draco feels a sort of calming warmth in his chest, despite it all.</p><p>Still, things don’t improve much from there. Draco continues to work on the wedding, and together with Harry, he puts the finishing touches on the planning—the only thing that hasn’t been done is <em>ordering</em> everything… But since there’s no point in doing so—there will be no wedding, after all—Draco doesn’t mind that.</p><p>The scrapbook is lovely, Draco thinks as he gently strokes his fingers against its cover. He may not be able to leave it to his children, but he will be able to at least leave it to his parents. <em>They</em> will be able to cherish it, and place Draco’s among all the other Malfoy weddings across the centuries—despite… Despite.</p><p>By the time they're in early April, Harry has taken a leave of absence from being an Auror, spending his time with Draco in the Manor, helping him move across the grounds with his cane or—more and more often now—pushing him around them in a wheelchair.</p><p>Draco loves to have him there, just the two of them or with a five year-old Teddy running around their legs. He wants to give Teddy as many memories of him as he can, before he’s gone. He’s old enough that with the help of photographs and stories, he should be able to remember Draco.</p><p>Somewhat, at least. Hazy memories perhaps, but memories nonetheless.</p><p>The Manor grounds are lovely in bloom, the wild of their growth gently and expertly tended and cultivated by the goblin groundskeepers. He waves at them whenever he sees them, but they seem rather despondent as of late. Draco can't be sure why, but sometimes he feels like the entire Manor and its grounds feel dejected and sad, despite being in bloom.</p><p>He loves the flowers though, and the wonderful birdsong he can hear whenever they go outside.</p><p>He thinks Father and Hermione may have lost hope. St. Mungo's definitely has. Ron is the only one that still seems as fervently at work as ever, but that might simply be that crime doesn't stop simply because your friend is dying.</p><p>Pansy moves in and dares anyone to say anything about it with a glare. She’s soon followed by Blaise, and Draco's glad. He's missed them when they've been in Italy.</p><p>He supposes they want to be here for the end, though they hadn't planned to come back to Britain until the wedding. He was at their wedding, after all, it wouldn’t do to have them not come to his.</p><p>He wonders what will happen to all of these people he loves once he’s gone. He sees their grief already, and hopelessness and naked fear in their eyes whenever they look at him.</p><p>He pretends to sleep in Harry’s arms, while really listening to his would-be husband cry himself to sleep. They’re trying to shield him from it, he realises, but he wishes they would just be honest.</p><p>Draco almost feels like he’s the one who’s suffering the least, like the true victims of this crime are his friends and family who have to watch him waste away. He doesn’t think they would agree if he said as much to them, but he can’t help but feel like he wants better for them.</p><p>He really does want so much better for them, after all.</p><p>It’s as he’s watching Harry and Teddy play in the garden, Blaise and Pansy lounging nearby, and Father and Hermione drop in to see him—desperate to get some time with him before he goes, even as they do their best to find <em>something</em> to save him—that Draco makes up his mind.</p><p>He wants to leave something behind for these people, for all of them who love him so much and suffer so much in the face of his pain and untimely demise.</p><p>He can’t let himself cry, not in front of them, no matter how much he wants to. Not yet, not until he’s far weaker than he is now. Perhaps he will allow himself some tears when they reach May, when any hope of rescue has been properly vanquished from his heart.</p><p>He will write them letters, one for each of them. Personalised and loving, so that they can carry something of him with them wherever their lives will take them in the future.</p><p>He makes sure to start immediately, while he can still write with a steady hand, before the tremors set in too terribly. Before his head hurts too much for him to be able to read or concentrate on what he wants to say.</p><p>He asks for some privacy, and they let him sit on his own by a table in one of the gazebos—overgrown with honeysuckle as it is—smelling the fragrant flowers as he writes his goodbyes to the people he loves and who love him in turn.</p><p>His father who failed him, but would do anything to have it undone.</p><p>His mother who willingly looked evil in the eye and lied for his sake.</p><p>His best friend who was with him through everything until he forced her away for her own sake.</p><p>His friend who’s never minced words and has always taken him to task for being overdramatic.</p><p>For his aunt, who he got to know far too late, who’s already lost so much family.</p><p>For his little cousin, whom he will never get to see grow up.</p><p>For the two friends he never thought he’d have, who he hated for so long for taking what he saw as his place.</p><p>And for the man who will never become his husband, no matter how much they wished for it.</p><p>He is honest in his letters, more honest than he can bear to be when he looks at all of them. He tells them all of the truth, what he loves, what he’s hated, how much he will miss them, and the best things he’s done with them in his life.</p><p>He loves them all so much; more than he'd once thought himself capable of. Giving them something to remember him by, all the good and all the bad, seems like the least he can do.</p><p>When he finishes the last letter and places it in its envelope, carefully charming it closed and writing Harry's name on the front, he feels despondent, at a loss. He doesn't know what to do with himself now. Time is ticking away, so fast yet so slow.</p><p>He wonders if it would have been easier to die in the autumn, or perhaps during winter, when everything else is dying too. He wonders if hearing the birds sing and watching the flowers bloom makes it harder to accept the fact that he's going to die soon. That while everything else is growing and full of life, he's slowly being drained of his.</p><p>He wonders if his attacker got what he wanted. After all, Harry hasn't left Draco, has instead stayed by Draco's side this entire time. The papers have only reported on Harry's heartache, not a "newfound life free of Death Eaters" or whatever Draco's attacker was hoping for.</p><p>Draco doesn't expect remorse from his attacker anyway, doesn't expect him to have a change of heart and turn himself in. People like that see the reality they want to see… so if the papers report in ten years that Harry is happy, then Draco's attacker will likely just think "I knew it!", regardless of how long it took.</p><p>"Draco," Harry says in a soft murmur, and Draco looks up from where his gaze was trained at the flowerbeds to find Harry leaning over him. "Have you finished your letters? It's lunchtime, and we were planning to all eat together. Even Ron's made it."</p><p>Draco smiles and raises an only slightly shaking hand to gently stroke Harry's cheek.</p><p>"Yes, I'm finished. You can take me inside now."</p><p>Draco listens to Harry chatter away as they head back inside, the charmed wheelchair easily moving across the gravel path under Harry's confident lead.</p><p>Draco loves this man so much.</p><p>He truly would have been happy to become his husband.</p><p><br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
</p><p>The last few weeks are terrible.</p><p>Draco is too weak to leave the bed under his own power. He's entirely reliant on his loved ones for everything, even magic beyond his reach now.</p><p>"I'd like to die outside, Harry," he murmurs one day, lying on a reclining chair outside as he is. "I want to die surrounded by the people I love during a lovely, sunny day with birdsong and flowers."</p><p>He doesn’t want to die in his bed.</p><p>"Oh, Draco." Harry's voice breaks, and his grip on Draco's hands as he bends over them, tears overflowing, is so hard it nearly hurts.</p><p>Draco finally feels his own tears break free from his eyes to slide down his cheeks.</p><p>He doesn't want to die and leave this lovely man behind. Draco fought so hard, did such terrible things, all to keep himself and his parents alive… he doesn't want it to end like this, not now that his death can hurt Harry, too.</p><p>They curl together like small children, crying their hearts out for the future they'll never have, the future that was <em>stolen</em> from them. Draco cries for the birthdays they'll never celebrate together, the wedding they'll never have, the children who will never be born, the Christmases they'll never share, and all the future moments together that have been ripped away from them.</p><p>It's unfair, so very unfair.</p><p>Even if Draco might possibly deserve it on some level, Harry does not. He's already lost enough, sacrificed enough, to Voldemort's damn war. His parents. His godfather. His friends.</p><p>And now, through an act of revenge, his future husband.</p><p>"Be happy, Harry," Draco gasps through his tears. "Find someone who'll make you happy. That's all I want for you."</p><p>Harry doesn't answer, he only cries harder and pulls Draco into his arms, burying his wet face in Draco's hair.</p><p>Perhaps it's selfish of Draco, but he wants Harry to promise he will. He wants to die knowing that Harry will do his best to find happiness after he's gone.</p><p>"For me, please, promise you'll try..." It's so selfish of him, Draco thinks, to make Harry promise, but he doesn't think he'll be able to rest easy if he doesn't. And if Draco became a ghost... He's quite sure that would be even worse for everyone involved.</p><p>"I promise," Harry sobs, the words muffled against Draco's skull.</p><p>"Thank you..."</p><p><br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
</p><p>Draco's eyesight is going, so Harry has taken to reading for him. Always in the garden, even if it's raining—there are charms for that, after all.</p><p>Father and Hermione have left the libraries behind—he wonders if they've combed through them so many times they've finally reached the point where they've given up—and now stay in the Manor with him. Mother no longer flits back and forth, and Aunt Andromeda has brought Teddy and moved in entirely for the time being.</p><p>Since Pansy and Blaise already did, the only one really missing is Ron.</p><p>He's been in and out before, but now Draco realises he hasn't seen Ron in over a week. Perhaps he can't handle seeing Draco like this. Draco wouldn't blame him for it. It cannot be easy for anyone to watch him fade away like this, likely as hard as it is for him to go.</p><p>"He's been working a lot," Hermione says, wringing her hands and unable to look Draco in the eyes. "We'll call him when… when the time comes."</p><p>She sniffles loudly and rubs at her eyes. The words set everyone else off, too, and soon, Draco is surrounded by crying loved ones. He hates it. He wants them to be <em>happy</em>, not sad.</p><p>Seeing their tears and pain is almost enough for him to want to die alone, without anyone else there to watch. Without anyone else there to be sad.</p><p>He falls asleep then, depressed and exhausted. He won't last much longer, he knows. He's grateful that at least it hasn't been a painful end. This curse could have been so much worse; he could have suffered the whole way through, with agony and tears.</p><p><br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
</p><p>He wakes up to chaos: loud voices and running footsteps.</p><p>Draco sits up—well, Pansy and Harry help him sit up—just in time for a stressed looking Ron to sweep in the room with a healer and everyone else on his heels.</p><p>“Oh good, you’re… you’re still alive,” Ron blurts, and then he’s ushering the healer forward.</p><p>As Draco gets a closer look at her, he realises that it’s the same healer who first diagnosed him with the wasting curse that’s slowly been killing him.</p><p>“Mr Malfoy,” she says, and suddenly she’s holding a vial with disgusting looking red liquid in it. “I must ask that you drink this potion immediately, the sooner, the better your chances.”</p><p>Draco feels dizzy, he’s not quite sure what is going on, or what chances of his are supposed to be better, but he takes the potions and drinks it all down before he can even question it.</p><p>If nothing else, he trusts Ron.</p><p>And he’s quite sure his own eleven year-old self would scream if anyone had told him that would happen. It’s a funny enough thought that Draco lets out a small laugh.</p><p>He feels quite out of it, and he’s stopped listening, but from the vibrations of Harry’s chest against his back, Draco knows that he’s talking. Saying something. He closes his eyes and snuggles closer to Harry's warm body.</p><p>Soon, he’s lying down again and someone is stroking his hair as magic washes over him in waves. He lets it happen and keeps his eyes closed, rests through the occasional stings of sharp magic coursing through him.</p><p>They'll explain it to him later.</p><p>If later ever comes.</p><p><br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
</p><p>When Draco wakes up next, it’s to find that his lungs feel freer than they have in a long time. He’s breathing easy, and while he’s <em>tired,</em> it’s not the same bone-deep weariness that has been weighing him down.</p><p>He can even feel the spark of his own magic.</p><p>He has no idea what has happened, but as his eyes flutter open, it’s to find Harry’s beaming face above him.</p><p>“Hi,” Harry murmurs, and gently lifts Draco’s hand to press his lips against his knuckles.</p><p>He looks happier than Draco has seen him in months, and it feels as if a heavy weight suddenly lifts from Draco’s shoulders, as if something that has been dragging him down has been cut away and left him feeling free and without burden.</p><p>“Hi,” Draco says, and drinks in Harry’s face as if it’s the first time he’s seeing him. He hadn’t realised how bad his eyesight had gotten until now, when…</p><p>“How do you feel?” There’s definitely joy in Harry’s voice, and it makes something in the back of Draco’s mind stand on attention.</p><p>He’s feeling better. He’s breathing easier, his eyesight is better, he’s not as exhausted as he has been, and Harry looks full of joy.</p><p>What <em>was</em> that potion the healer gave him?</p><p>Have they…?</p><p>Is he…?</p><p>“I… I feel…” Draco stumbles over the words, his mind reeling. It can’t be… Can it?</p><p>“Ron found him,” Harry says and laughs, with a look on his face as if he can hardly believe it. He looks like a small child would if all Christmases and birthdays came at the same time.</p><p>“Him?”</p><p>“Your attacker.” Harry presses another kiss to Draco’s knuckles. “He found the person who attacked you, and he found the recipe for the poison and… St. Mungo’s figured out an antidote, a cure.”</p><p>“A cure,” Draco breathes, suddenly feeling out of breath.</p><p>“You’re going to live,” Harry says, and suddenly there are tears streaming down his cheeks, and Draco feels himself pulled into his arms.</p><p>“I’m… I’m going to live…?”</p><p>It feels as if it cannot possibly be true. Draco resigned himself to the reality that he would die before he turned twenty-three, he can’t just turn this around in his head so quickly.</p><p>He clutches Harry’s shoulders and tries to stop his own tears, even as he hears Harry repeat those words over and over again, like a mantra, like a man given the only thing he’s dreamt of and will never ask for anything else ever again.</p><p>He wonders where everyone else is, but he supposes they decided to give Harry these first moments.</p><p>“Everyone else…?”</p><p>“Right outside,” Harry laughs, tears still in his eyes as he pulls back slightly. “I just… I just wanted the first few moments with you.” He kisses Draco gently then.</p><p>“I love you,” Draco murmurs, looking up at the man he thought he’d die before he could marry… The man he now <em>will</em> marry.</p><p>“I love you too.” Harry presses his forehead gently against Draco’s. “Before I get them, I should warn you that your mother took our finished wedding album and all the plans and has started to make the necessary bookings and appointments. She started the moment the healer said that she and Ron had made it in time and that you <em>will</em> recover.”</p><p>Draco laughs.</p><p>“She probably didn’t want to give you a chance to back out, now that I won’t die before the big day.”</p><p>Perhaps he shouldn’t be joking about his own death like this, when it’s only just been prevented… But somehow he feels like if <em>anyone</em> can, it’s him. He can make light of his own death however much he wants.</p><p>“No chance of that, you git,” Harry says and shakes his head, before he presses another soft kiss to Draco’s lips.</p><p>Harry climbs out of bed as Draco keeps himself seated under his own power. He can hardly believe how quickly he’s regained strength!</p><p>"I'll go get them," Harry says with a smile. "Ron's been keeping mum about how they succeeded, said you'd be a right shit if he told anyone else before you."</p><p>Draco laughs. "Well, he's right."</p><p>He's quite certain he would be put out if everyone else knew the truth before him. Well, unless he was in a coma or something, that <em>might</em> have made it forgivable.</p><p>Laughing, Harry opens the door and yells something down the hallway. Draco can't even begin to fight the smile that the sudden stampede of footsteps brings to his lips.</p><p>He's almost overwhelmed by the horde of people who swarm into the room, but he takes his parents fussing and crying with ease, even as Pansy calls him an asshole for ruining her makeup. As if it's<em> Draco's</em> fault that she's an emotional bint crying over his survival. Really.</p><p>When things finally settle down, everyone turns to Ron with raised eyebrows and crossed arms.</p><p>"All right, all right, sheesh. Hold onto your hats, I'll explain. I just didn't want Draco to have something to be in a snit about."</p><p>"Much appreciated," Draco says with a nod and a smile.</p><p>"Well, actually, it was in part thanks to Mr Malfoy and Hermione. Or a lot, actually." Ron scratches his cheek and beams at Hermione.</p><p>Both Father and Hermione look genuinely confused, however, so whatever their contribution, it must have been unknowing.</p><p>"What are you talking about, Ron? Mr Malfoy and I… We gave up. We didn't find anything." Hermione is wringing her hands together and looking like she's about to cry. Draco knows she probably hates not only admitting that she failed, but also that she admitted defeat.</p><p>Ron shakes his head. "I mean… yeah, but that ritual you found. The one that sort of made you stop looking…"</p><p>"Right," Father says. "Because it told us that there was no help to be found in the libraries. We did everything we could until we realised that it was futile…"</p><p>The look he gives Draco then is anguished and filled with shame, as if he's failed Draco anew.</p><p>"Yeah, because there wasn't." Ron shrugs. "The potion was a new invention, it wouldn't be in any book in any library. But that ritual spell, that lets you find things without intent, without knowing what you're looking for… it helped us find a clue at the scene of the attack even though it's been months."</p><p>"You found a clue?" Harry's back is suddenly ramrod straight.</p><p>"There was a small bit of the bottle that we'd missed, that the attacker also missed." Ron grins. "And lucky for us, there were still some traces left on the glass, despite the rain and sleet that's been since."</p><p>"How is that even possible?" Pansy demands.</p><p>"Turns out that Unicorn blood and Basilisk venom stain something terribly, and you need special stuff to remove it from glass." Ron nods. "It's why he vanished the glass too, rather than just casting Scourgify."</p><p>Draco snorts loudly. "Yes, they are rather famous for that. Rare and controlled substances too, for <em>obvious</em> reasons." He knows his potions after all.</p><p>"So, the attacker was a potions master then?" Aunt Andromeda asks, leaning forward in her chair.</p><p>Ron shakes his head. "Nah, but we managed to trace it to an apothecary where it had been sold just around the time of the attack. Except, uh, it had been reported as stolen, which is why we checked it out first."</p><p>"So, he stole it from an apothecary?" Harry frowns. "Considering how careful he's been overall, that makes sense. He wouldn't want anyone to be able to figure out he'd bought these ingredients at all."</p><p>Ron shakes his head.</p><p>"Not quite. Turns out that this particular apothecary has a little side business: custom potions of varying levels of legality."</p><p>Draco feels stunned. He would never have guessed that his attack had so many other crimes hidden behind it. </p><p>"The guy who runs it has to support his sister and her family after her wife died in the war—she suffered severe curse damage—so he's been taking custom orders to get extra income. It turns out that the Ministry said things aren't actually getting paid out as they should—so we actually managed to root out more corruption in the process of finding Draco's attacker." Ron snorts loudly, and Draco can't blame him. It's actually kind of funny.</p><p>"So then… Why were the ingredients reported as stolen?" Mother looks troubled.</p><p>"Because he couldn't tell anyone what they'd been used in… though usually he would just have reported it as<em> missing,</em> but Draco's attacker obliviated him after he got his potion so the guy didn't remember what it has been used for. He checked his secret automatic ledgers when we pressured him and voilà, there it was."</p><p>They continue to talk and ask questions—and Draco definitely understands why he only wanted to go through the whole thing once, rather than tell people one by one.</p><p>Turns out that Draco’s attacker had promised to take a wizard's oath to not hurt anyone with the potion before buying it, but on the day, he stunned the potion maker, stole the potion, Obliviated him and then upon reviving him, pretended like he’d just found him on the floor.</p><p>Apparently, he’d also pretended to really need a potion for diarrhoea which had accounted for his jitters in the mind of the apothecary attendant.</p><p>Of course, the assailant hadn’t known about the automatic ledgers, so he probably thought that he was home free with nothing to trace him back to what had happened at all.</p><p>He was almost right.</p><p>It’s terrifying to know that if a criminal is just careful enough, plans long enough, there’s a good chance that even though the Aurors are well trained and have <em>magic</em>, the criminal can still get away with terrible things. And as long as the people who need help since the war ended don't get it, there will be desperate people willing to do terrible things to survive. After all, Draco should know better than anyone what desperation can make someone do.</p><p>Draco looks at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and sees the grim determination on their faces. They've fought the Ministry and its corruption before, they’ve worked hard to try and ensure that a properly working Ministry took its place after the war—lest the mistakes of the past be repeated. It must be hard for them to see that there’s still corruption afoot.</p><p>Of course, if there’s anyone who can come to the bottom of that sort of thing and fix it… It would be those three, wouldn’t it?</p><p>But perhaps that's best to leave for the future. For now, Draco wants to focus on something far more immediate: he wakes to get healthy in time for his<em> wedding</em>.</p><p>He loves these people so much, and even though this whole thing has been awful and terrible in so many ways… he's been reminded of why he loves them, and he's felt their love for him in turn. He doesn't think that he would want to have these months undone. Dying had been awful, depressing, and terrible… but it's also taught him things he'll never forget.</p><p>He laughs gently and looks around the room.</p><p>"I suppose I have my work cut out for me to get back into shape for the wedding then," he says.</p><p>He's treated to the lovely sight of Harry's bright grin, the one Draco would do almost anything to keep on his face.</p><p><br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
</p><p>Their wedding day is perfect. The weather is lovely and they both look<em> amazing</em>, if you ask Draco.</p><p>He can barely believe that, just weeks ago, he didn’t think he’d live to see this. He <em>wouldn’t</em> have lived to see it if not for the effort of his friends and family. Draco is going to make the absolute most of his life from now on. He nearly lost his life, nearly died before his twenty-third birthday. But now… Now, he’s been given back the time that was almost stolen from him, so he’s not about to waste it.</p><p>Dying in spring is hard.</p><p><em>Living </em>in summer is far easier.</p>
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